DeadAwake wrote: They (C14) can decay at any time, spontaneously, well, that is without known reason. 50% decay more or less in 5.7k years. Right?

As in you have something which dissapears, fairly unpredictably, yet within a fixed period of time a given percentage is found to, more or less to remain and dissapear. So that in the given mass a certain percentage dissapears. That time frame is based on an average, therefore it is not certain, but probable.

Carbon dating) is a radiometric dating technique that uses the decay of carbon-14 (14C) to estimate the age of organic materials.

Wikipedia, 24 June 2013, Wikipedia

See that's the thing it disappears predictably.

Just like your light bulbs have a life of 10,000 hours but they could burn out at any time.

No one said this was exact. It's a good estimate.

Wed Jun 26, 2013 9:07 pm

DeadAwake

Joined: 17 Feb 2007
Posts: 596
Location: Aus.

jakethesnake wrote: See that's the thing it disappears predictably.

Just like your light bulbs have a life of 10,000 hours but they could burn out at any time.

Yes, that's a good analogy. See Granther, a light bulb can blow at any moment, yet its life expectancy is based on the probability of a bulb blowing every 10,000 hours. Thanks jake.